Mr. Pope, in his last illness, amused himself, amidst the care of his
higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete edition of his
writings;[1] and, with his usual delicacy, was even solicitous to
prevent any share of the offence they might occasion, from falling on
the friend whom he had engaged to give them to the public.[2] In
discharge of this trust, the public has here a complete edition of his
works, executed in such a manner, as, I am persuaded, would have been to
his satisfaction. The editor hath not, for the sake of profit, suffered
the author's name to be made cheap by a subscription;[3] nor his works
to be defrauded of their due honours by a vulgar or inelegant
impression; nor his memory to be disgraced by any pieces unworthy of his
talents or virtue. On the contrary, he hath, at a very great expense,
ornamented this edition with all the advantages which the best artists
in paper, printing, and sculpture could bestow upon it.[4]
If the public hath waited longer than the deference due to its generous
impatience for the author's writings should have suffered, it was owing
to a reason which the editor need not be ashamed to tell. It was his
regard to the family interests of his deceased friend. Mr. Pope, at his
death, had left large impressions of several parts of his works, unsold,
the property of which was adjudged to belong to his executors; and the
editor was willing they should have time to dispose of them to the best
advantage, before the publication of this edition (which hath been long
prepared) should put a stop to the sale. But it may be proper to be a
little more particular concerning the superiority of this edition above
all the preceding, so far as Mr. Pope himself was concerned. What the
editor hath done, the reader must collect for himself.
The first volume, and the original poems in the second, are here first
printed from a copy corrected throughout by the author himself, even to
the very preface,[5] which, with several additional notes in his own
hand, he delivered to the editor a little before his death. The juvenile
translations, in the other part of the second volume, it was never his
intention to bring into this edition of his works, on account of the
levity of some, the freedom of others, and the little importance of all.
But these being the property of other men, the editor had it not in his
power to follow the author's intention.
The third volume (all but the Essay on Man, which together with the
Essay on Criticism, the author, a little before his death, had corrected
and published in quarto, as a specimen of his projected edition,) was
printed by him in his last illness, but never published, in the manner
it is now given. The disposition of the Epistle on the Characters of Men
is quite altered; that on the Characters of Women much enlarged; and the
Epistles on Riches and Taste corrected and improved. To these advantages
of the third volume must be added a great number of fine verses, taken
from the author's manuscript copies of these poems, communicated by him
for this purpose to the editor. These, the author, when he first
published the poems to which they belong, thought proper, for various
reasons, to omit. Some, from the manuscript copy of the Essay on Man,
which tended to discredit fate, and to recommend the moral government of
God, had, by the editor's advice, been restored to their places in the
last edition of that poem.[6] The rest, together with others of the like
sort, from his manuscript copy of the other Ethic Epistles, are here
inserted at the bottom of the page, under the title of Variations.
The fourth volume contains the Satires, with their Prologue,--the
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot; and Epilogue,--the two poems intitled
MDCCXXXVIII. The Prologue and Epilogue are here given with the like
advantages as the Ethic Epistles in the foregoing volume, that is to
say, with the Variations, or additional verses from the author's
manuscripts. The Epilogue to the Satires is likewise inriched with many
and large notes, now first printed from the author's own manuscript.
The fifth volume contains a correcter and completer edition of the
Dunciad than hath been hitherto published, of which, at present, I have
only this further to add, that it was at my request he laid the plan of
a fourth book. I often told him, it was pity so fine a poem should
remain disgraced by the meanness of its subject, the most insignificant
of all dunces,--bad rhymers and malevolent cavillers; that he ought to
raise and ennoble it by pointing his satire against the most pernicious
of all,--minute philosophers and free-thinkers. I imagined, too, it was
for the interests of religion to have it known, that so great a genius
had a due abhorrence of these pests of virtue and society. He came
readily into my opinion; but, at the same time, told me it would create
him many enemies. He was not mistaken, for though the terror of his pen
kept them for some time in respect, yet on his death they rose with
unrestrained fury in numerous coffee-house tales, and Grub Street
libels. The plan of this admirable satire was artfully contrived to
show, that the follies and defects of a fashionable education naturally
led to, and necessarily ended in, freethinking, with design to point out
the only remedy adequate to so destructive an evil. It was to advance
the same ends of virtue and religion, that the editor prevailed on him
to alter everything in his moral writings that might be suspected of
having the least glance towards fate or naturalism, and to add what was
proper to convince the world that he was warmly on the side of moral
government and a revealed will. And it would be great injustice to his
memory not to declare that he embraced these occasions with the most
unfeigned pleasure.
The sixth volume consists of Mr. Pope's miscellaneous pieces in verse
and prose. Amongst the verse several fine poems make now their first
appearance in his works. And of the prose, all that is good, and nothing
but what is exquisitely so, will be found in this edition.
The seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes consist entirely of his letters,
the more valuable, as they are the only true models which we, or perhaps
any of our neighbours, have of familiar epistles.[7] This collection is
now made more complete by the addition of several new pieces. Yet,
excepting a short explanatory letter to Col. M[oyser], and the letters
to Mr. A[llen] and Mr. W[arburton] (the latter of which are given to
show the editor's inducements, and the engagements he was under, to
intend the care of this edition) excepting these, I say, the rest are
all here published from the author's own printed, though not published
copies delivered to the editor.[8]
On the whole, the advantages of this edition, above the preceding, are
these,--that it is the first complete collection which has ever been
made of his original writings; that all his principal poems, of early or
later date, are here given to the public with his last corrections and
improvements; that a great number of his verses are here first printed
from the manuscript copies of his principal poems of later date; that
many new notes of the author are here added to his poems; and lastly,
that several pieces, both in prose and verse make now their first
appearance before the public.
The author's life deserves a just volume, and the editor intends to give
it. For to have been one of the first poets in the world is but his
second praise. He was in a higher class. He was one of the "noblest
works of God." He was an "honest man,"[9]--a man who alone possessed
more real virtue than, in very corrupt times, needing a satirist like
him, will sometimes fall to the share of multitudes. In this history of
his life,[10] will be contained a large account of his writings, a
critique on the nature, force, and extent of his genius, exemplified
from these writings; and a vindication of his moral character,
exemplified by his more distinguished virtues,--his filial piety, his
disinterested friendships, his reverence for the constitution of his
country, his love and admiration of virtue, and (what was the necessary
effect) his hatred and contempt of vice, his extensive charity to the
indigent, his warm benevolence to mankind, his supreme veneration of the
Deity, and above all his sincere belief of Revelation. Nor shall his
faults be concealed. It is not for the interests of his virtues that
they should. Nor indeed could they be concealed, if we were so disposed,
for they shine through his virtues, no man being more a dupe to the
specious appearances of virtue in others.[11] In a word, I mean not to
be his panegyrist but his historian. And may I, when envy and calumny
have taken the same advantage of my absence (for, while I live, I will
freely trust it to my life to confute them) may I find a friend as
careful of my honest fame as I have been of his! Together with his
works, he hath bequeathed me his dunces. So that as the property is
transferred, I could wish they would now let his memory alone. The veil
which death draws over the good is so sacred, that to tear it, and with
sacrilegious hands, to throw dirt upon the shrine, gives scandal even to
barbarians. And though Rome permitted her slaves to calumniate her best
citizens on the day of triumph, yet the same petulancy at their funeral
would have been rewarded with execration and a gibbet.[12] The public
may be malicious; but is rarely vindictive or ungenerous. It would abhor
all insults, on a writer dead, though it had borne with the ribaldry, or
even set the ribalds on work, when he was alive. And in this there is no
great harm, for he must have a strange impotency of mind indeed whom
such miserable scribblers can disturb or ruffle. Of all that gross
Beotian phalanx who have written scurrilously against the editor, he
knows not so much as one whom a writer of reputation would not wish to
have his enemy, or whom a man of honour would not be ashamed to own for
his friend.[13] He is indeed but slightly conversant in their works, and
knows little of the particulars of their defamation. To his authorship
they are heartily welcome. But if any of them have been so far abandoned
by truth as to attack his moral character in any respect whatsoever, to
all and every one of these and their abettors, he gives the lie in form,
and in the words of honest Father Valerian, _mentiris impudentissime_.